Gilbert wakes with a start, sitting up and accidentally making his head spin. He flops back down to his bed with a groan. He lays with his arm over his face while his mind stops buzzing from the rush. When he finally manages to crawl off the couch he heads to the kitchen with a yawn, making himself a nice cup of hot chocolate to wake himself up more. He scratches wildly at his hair making it seem more crazy than normal. It's nearly 5 in the afternoon.

For a little while he messes around on the computer, checking out new music and the stats for the radio station. Locally running it took a lot of effort at first. Not many people listened to them and business wouldn't run commercials for them. They somehow managed to gain an influx of listeners over the past year or so. Maybe the tiny little town they live in doesn't need the high fancy regular stations. They offer a good mix of music and variety at all times of day.

Gilbert smirks to himself and packs up his bag to head to the station now. He keeps his head low on the bus, tapping his fingers to the music pounding in his ears. He puts his hands in his pockets and walks the rest of the way to the front doors, pushing them open with a dramatic flair.

"I know it seems like I live here but you come in so early," Matthias teases when Gilbert walks by the door. He cackles and walks backwards to lean against the door frame. In the corner of Matthias's paper littered room is a small girl with short light blonde hair who looks utterly displeased to be there.

"Hey Lene I didn't think you'd visit today," Gilbert greets her. She glances up at him with cold eyes and huffs turning away. Matthias laughs at her action and pulls her hand to cuddle into her stomach. She smacks the back of his head but he doesn't let go. Gilbert takes his leave of the, what he assumes to be, happy couple. He passes by the window of where Francis is set up. He leans on his elbows to watch his friend work.

Francis has papers scattered about him as well, but in a more organized manner of specific piles. He's meticulous in the way he works that Gilbert can tell exactly where he is in his show. He's not sure why Francis does it but, he allows people to send in letters to loved ones or to ask advice and answers them aloud on the show. It seems like a cheesy idea, but they get a fair amount of letters to their P.O. box. Sometimes Francis will even take live calls for the fun of it.

When the song plays over head signaling Francis has turned off his microphone and it's safe to go into the booth without fear of the listeners hearing, Gilbert enters.

"Sup Franny?" He greets in that polite manner he is so obviously known for. Francis blows him a kiss sarcastically.

"You just missed the most adorable description," He says with a wave of his hands. Gilbert snorts and shakes his head. He doubts that.

"When are you going to give me a description of your lovely little lady?" Francis teases. Gilbert flips him off.

"I'm not going to do that and you know it." Francis sighs dramatically and waves him out as the song is ending. Gilbert closes the door but presses his face up against the glass, smearing it with his gross faces. It's Francis's turn to flip him off. He snickers and heads to the small office area where they store the playlists for the future. He finds his new one for the night and skims through it, finding a few of the songs he suggested up and ready inside. He smirks, excited for the night.

10'o clock rolls around and Gilbert is in the other booth, bouncing up and down and ready to get rolling for the night. He can hear Francis do his sign off through his headphones and flips on his microphone at the proper moment.

"What's up night birds, how are you guys doing so far tonight? Don't answer that people might think you're talking to yourself." The words prattle out of his mouth naturally, like he's talking to just one person over the multitude of listeners they actually have. College kids make bad decisions, and one of them happens to be staying up late doing homework or getting food or both. The radio provides an adequate less lonely feel to that.

He begins to play music, tapping his hands to his knees to the beat. He waves bye to Francis as his partner takes his leave, probably going to bed for the night. Very rarely do they have time to hang out and be friends together. It takes a lot of planning to be able to take days off and lots of pre-recording. They can do it when necessary, but it's a tedious job.

Gilbert smirks at the next chunk of time set aside. After the next few songs. It's one of his favorite parts of the night. He's not sure how it got started, but he's sure it started when he got a caller nearing 2 in the morning. He didn't know how to respond having never got a call before and answered in a simplistic way that nearly got them cancelled. However it made the night's ratings raise so they gave him his own little segment.

"Alright everyone after this song it 2 am you know what that means, it's time for 'why the fuck are you still up?' Get ready to hear people's crazy stories of the night." He plays the last song and gets prepared to answers calls and listen to the weird things people are doing in the night. The song ends and he bounces in his swivel chair. His headphones are buzzing with the notice of his first person ready to talk.

"Hey alright we got our first caller," He presses a button on the control pad in front of him. "You're on live with BTT Radio, why the fuck are you still up?" He jerks as a loud click comes through telling him the caller hung up without talking. It's silent for a second as his mind processes what just happened.

"Well shit I guess they changed their mind, let's get someone new," It takes a moment but a voice actually comes through this time. Studying for classes like usual, but this time with more food than they can eat. Classic.


Since Felicia had to do class things, Madeline took her shift, working the last tail end of the day as well as her regular night shift. Her feet are going to hurt so badly but it'll be okay. Felicia will probably make dinner for her because of it and her cooking is always amazing.

Lovino comes in a furry, ordering coffee and food and taking out his books immediately. Soon enough his hands are in his hair and he's grumbling to himself over the stupidity of something or another. Madeline watches him work for a moment then takes over his order, hopefully not startling him into knocking it off the table.

"What are you working on?" She asks gently to get his attention and put the food down when he's paying attention. It's barely out of her hands before he takes the coffee and chugs half of it though it's scalding hot. She winces but Lovino seems to pay no mind to the burn.

"I don't get it. I don't get math, fuck this shit I fucking hate math who decided-" His ramblings are cut off by his own annoyance, pulling at his hair and gritting his teeth. Madeline sighs and nearly tells him to take a break when a loud bang is heard. She turns around to see Amelia hanging onto the edge of the wall separating the back room with a starry glow in her eyes.

"Did someone say math?" She waltzes over to where they are and looks down at the book in front of Lovino. She claps and takes a seat next to him. The conversation is soon lost on Madeline as her finance and math major sister takes over tutoring her best friend. She watches with a smile as they get along for once and Lovino is finally understanding his class. He's been struggling for a while, trying to keep up and always just barely passing his exams. Maybe with Amelia's help he can do better.

Madeline huffs to herself. She still wants to talk to Ivan before she mentions anything to Amelia. He's come in more often in the morning, finding the right time to be there before Amelia is coming in to go to work. She has no idea what Ivan does with his time or how he can manage and afford to come get coffee nearly every morning. It's concerning. She's going to have to find time to ask him about that.

Tomorrow is Sunday, meaning they actually close for a while, letting their workers sleep in until the afternoon rolls around. It's the one time they are actually fully closed. Good thing cause it's really late in the night when Amelia and Lovino call it quits, having gotten the material nearly all done with.

"Oh shit," Amelia runs to the back room and Madeline rolls her eyes, wondering just what her sister forgot this time. She flips her rag over her shoulder as the radio plays its last song before one of her favorite parts of the night comes around. She's not sure why it's a section of his station, but it's really funny to her.

"Maddie hey can you take this right quick?" Amelia hands her the phone to the café and she holds it up to her ear, ready to go on the spiel she says when they get calls, only to hear the phone ringing instead. She gives Amelia a skeptical look for the devilish grin she has on her face when the ringing stops.

"You're on live with BTT Radio, why the fuck are you still up?" Madeline wastes no time in hanging up. She holds the phone at arms length wide eyed as the radio station plays overhead.

"Well shit I guess they changed their mind, let's get someone new." It's those words that make Madeline realizes exactly what just happened. She drops the phone to the counter and covers her mouth with her hands, staring at her sister and Lovino, both sporting matching unimpressed looks.

"What did you do?" She asks a little breathlessly at being scared so badly. Lovino makes a disgusted face at her.

"What did we do? What did you do! You hung up on him!" He throws his hands up in an incredulous fashion. Madeline covers her whole face and shakes her head. There's no way that just happened.

"You've been listening to that dude talk on the radio for months now and never called in." Amelia points out with her arms now crossed over her chest. Of course she hasn't called in. It's scary to think he might hear her, that he might recognize her voice and think she's weird. Or worse, not recognize her.

"Come on Maddie, own up and call him! Just ask for a song request or something! Make it nonchalant! Aaggh," Amelia goes off. She collects her things and does a two finger salute as she leaves the café for the night. Madeline whines and drops her head to the counter.

"Seriously though, seeing you pine is sad," Lovino remarks. She lifts her head to see him walk outside as well, leaving her alone with the sound of his voice filling the building. Her heart is still pounding from being so close to talking to him once again.

Her mind races the whole night, playing with the phone in her hands when she doesn't have to talk to customers. Amelia's words are echoing inside her mind and she's tempted to follow through. She bites her lip and holds her fingers over the buttons she memorized long ago though she never called. She takes a deep breath, and puts the phone down.

She can't do it. Not right now, not tonight. She needs to mentally prepare herself for such a nerve wracking thing. She shakes out her hands as she collects her things and actually shuts down the machines and turns off the lights. She locks the building up nice and tight, staring into the now dark room with a small amount of pride. She pats the door and then finds the nearest blue light around campus. She presses the button for the non emergency police line.

She greets the driver easily, having known them since every time she needs a ride back to her home late at night it's him driving. Most of the time she felt fine walking, but it's still dark out and she's not fond of walking in the dark. Berwald doesn't say much and that's okay, Madeline is able to make nice conversation with him anyway. Every so often his wife Tina will come in and order a sweet coffee and maybe a small sandwich before heading down to work at the shooting range. She says goodbye politely and like every time he nods his head in a farewell to her too.

She peels off her work clothes and lays face first in bed, excited to be able to sleep in for a long time. Her heart pounds just a little harder at the clear cut memory of his voice in her ear. Tomorrow, she'll have the courage to call.